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Retrieval of Body-Wave Reflections Using Ambient Noise Interferometry Using a Small-Scale Experiment

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Abstract

We report the retrieval of body-wave reflections from noise records using a small-scale experiment over a mature oil field. The reflections are obtained by cross-correlation and stacking of the data. We used the stacked correlograms to create virtual source-to-receiver common shot gathers and are able to obtain body-wave reflections. Surface waves that obliterate the body-waves in our noise correlations were attenuated following a standard procedure from active source seismics. Further different strategies were employed to cross-correlate and stack the data: classical geometrical normalized cross-correlation (CCGN), phase cross-correlation (PCC), linear stacking**** and phase weighted stacking (PWS). PCC and PWS are based on the instantaneous phase coherence of analytic signals. The four approaches are independent and reveal the reflections; nevertheless, the combination of PWS and CCGN provided the best results. Our analysis is based on 2145 cross-correlations of 600 s data segments. We also compare the resulted virtual shot gathers with an active 2D seismic line near the passive experiment. It is shown that our ambient noise analysis reproduces reflections which are present in the active seismic data.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Editor, Adrien Oth, and two anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments that improved the original manuscript. We also thank Petrobras for the financial support. AFdN and MS thank CNPq for the Grant 402174/2012-7 (Science without Borders Programme), AFdN thank CNPq for Grant 303817/2014-3. OABD thanks the PRH-ANP-22 (“Programa de Formação em Geologia, Geofísica e Informática no Setor Petróleo & Gás na UFRN”) for his MSc scholarship. The authors also wish to thank the ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) for the 2D active data used in this work. We wish to thank Flavio Santana for the discussions and his valuable help with the 2D active seismic lines visualization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Geodinâmica e Geofísica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil

    Odmaksuel Anísio Bezerra Dantas & Aderson Farias do Nascimento

  2. Departamento de Geofísica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, 59072-970, Brazil

    Aderson Farias do Nascimento

  3. ICTJA-CSIC, Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra Jaume Almera, C/Lluis Solé Sabaris s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Martin Schimmel

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  1. Odmaksuel Anísio Bezerra Dantas
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Correspondence to Aderson Farias do Nascimento.

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Dantas, O.A.B., do Nascimento, A.F. & Schimmel, M. Retrieval of Body-Wave Reflections Using Ambient Noise Interferometry Using a Small-Scale Experiment. Pure Appl. Geophys. 175, 2009–2022 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1794-0

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